Nathaniel Reed serves as vice chairman of both the Everglades Foundation and the Florida Conservation Coalition. His record of public service began in 1967 when he became Florida’s first environmental advisor to Gov. Claude Kirk. In 1969, Reed was appointed chairman of the Department of Air and Water Pollution Control and was central to the reversal of two significant cases of environmental deterioration: the signing of the Florida Jetport Pact and the abandonment of the Cross-Florida Barge Canal project. He was credited with a role in the purchase of 22 new state parks and helped to establish air quality regions in the state. In 1971, Reed became Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and National Parks under Richard Nixon and remained in that position through the Gerald Ford Administration.

Reed returned to Florida in 1977 and served seven governors on a range of committees and commissions. He is best known as chairman of the Commission on Florida’s Environmental Future, which recommended the most ambitious land acquisition program in U.S. history. Reed was a board member and vice chairman of the National Audubon Society and the Nature Conservancy; board member of the National Parks & Conservation Association; and board member emeritus of the Natural Resources Defense Council and 1000 Friends of Florida. He served on the board of the National Geographic Society for 20 years.